Before reaching the tender age of 30, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) had already sculpted Pietà and David, two of the most famous sculptures in the entire history of art. As a sculptor, painter, draftsman, and architect, the achievements of this Italian master are unique—no artist before or after him has ever produced such a vast, multifaceted, and wide-ranging œuvre. This fresh TASCHEN edition traces Michelangelo’s ascent to the cultural elite of the Renaissance. Ten richly illustrated chapters cover the artist’s paintings, sculptures, and architecture, including a close analysis of the artist’s tour de force frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.Full-page reproductions and enlarged details allow readers to appreciate the finest details in the artist’s repertoire, while the book’s biographical essay considers Michelangelo’s more personal traits and circumstances, such as his solitary nature, his thirst for money and commissions, his immense wealth, and his skill as a property investor.


Inventor, painter, sculptor, scientist, architect, and engineer Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was nothing short of a quintessential Renaissance genius. No other artist of his generation has left behind such an extensive, authentic, and innovative oeuvre—yet Leonardo remains the most enigmatic of them all. From the beguiling Last Supper to the showstopping Mona Lisa, discover the complete painted oeuvre of one of history’s most insatiable creative masters. This collection draws from our extensive best-selling XXL edition, one of the most complete explorations of Leonardo to date, to trace his life and work across 10 chapters. All known paintings are featured, gathering some of the finest treasures of the Louvre, Prado, and National Gallery, as well as works lost to time, but no less startling in their precision and poise. This definitive volume is complete with crisp details, accessible essays situating Leonardo’s approach within its socio-cultural context and pictorial traditions of the time, the latest scientific insights, as well as an updated foreword that illuminates one of the most sensational art historical discoveries of our time: the record-breaking Salvator Mundi.





One of the most accomplished human beings who ever lived, Leonardo da Vinci remains the quintessential Renaissance genius. Creator of the world’s most famous paintings, this scientist, artist, philosopher, inventor, builder, and mechanic epitomized the great flowering of human consciousness that marks his era.

As part of our Bibliotheca Universalis series, Leonardo da Vinci – The Graphic Work features top-quality reproductions of 663 of Leonardo’s drawings, more than half of which reside in the Royal Collection of Windsor Castle. From anatomical studies to architectural plans, from complex engineering designs to pudgy infant portraits, delve in and delight in the delicate finesse of one of the most talented minds, and hands, in history.